Data source
Metrics are derived from NHS Digital Appointments in General Practice (GPAD) — practice-level crosstab extracts promoted via DataMedic PCI Step 22. Publication periods and appointment months follow NHS release schedules.
Recorded appointments
Figures reflect appointments recorded in supplier systems. They do not capture informal contacts, total clinical workload, or demand that was not booked as an appointment.
Key metrics
- Appointments per 1,000 patients — total recorded appointments in the month divided by registered list size (where available).
- GP appointments per working day — GP-attributed appointments divided by UK weekdays in the month.
- Same / next-day booking % — share of appointments with a known booking interval booked for the same day or one day ahead.
- 8+ day booking % — share of known-interval appointments booked eight or more days ahead.
- DNA rate — did-not-attend as a share of attended plus DNA (excluding unknown status).
- Clinically urgent same-day % — same-day booking share within national category General Consultation Acute (2026/27 contract framing).
Comparators
Practice views include rollups for the parent PCN, Sub-ICB and England for the same appointment month. PCN and Sub-ICB values aggregate member practices; England uses all practices with data in that month.
Percentiles & leaderboard
National percentiles and leaderboard rankings are pre-computed nightly from practice-month snapshots. Rebuild command: python manage.py build_gp_appt_public_snapshots (scheduled after Step 22 promote in production).
Limitations
- Sub-ICB coverage warnings appear when fewer than 85% of open practices report data.
- Booking interval and mode fields may be unknown for a material share of rows — shown where relevant.
- Clinical online consultations may not map to a distinct GPAD field; category breakdowns use NHS national categories.